"Stephen Elop devalued Nokia so Microsoft could buy it" - I just want to have that so Google can search this and know there were many of us that have known and believed this from day one that Steve Elop was a trojan horse. Before Elop joined Nokia I was already concerned, since he was the last CEO of Macromedia which he sold after 3 months to their "bigger" competitor for a position there - what happened to Macromedia's technology after Adobe acquired it is another matter. But back to Mr Elop, guys, this is his modus operandi - and Nokia was the gift he had to deliver to Microsoft to become CEO - reduce Nokia's value by about 75-80% and he did it in less that 3 years (not quite as good as the 3 months for Macromedia)!
I think he will get a platinum blade, or whatever they give to deep-cover business operatives.
The "burning-platform" (backstabbing of existing Nokia assets), which led to the cancellation/sabotaging of ready-to-go projects for smartphones, turned his back on years and millions of R&D in tools and technologies that have been created, and shutting down any projects and innovation related to feature-phones - which has always been crucial to Nokia's bottom lime. These products could have kept Nokia users and investors satisfied until the Windows Mobile phone came out A YEAR later, Lumia 800, almost instantly made old when Microsoft revealed that it won't be able to upgrade to their latest Windows Mobile platform - is that what they call a good launch strategy & "working together"? Then the shutting down some of the most active and productive R&D units, the refusal to listen to the board in the past 9 months in terms of diversifying it's strategy, removing Flash technologies to make place for Silverlight (which then got abandoned by MS this year) etc. Then, finally, in May 2013 the Nokia board was getting ready to "fire" Elop after his "experiment" "failed" - but they obviously didn't know what his plans were, and that it was actually working out perfectly.
So in terms of who is really responsible? It's actually all of us in a way, but in the case of Nokia whomever let Microsoft/Elop in the door in the first place are the real culprits. Elop is just doing what Elop does, ignoring history (even recent corporate history) is the reason we are here today.
I am currently working on a project for Nokia, um, Microsoft, and about the only good thing I can say is that I am happy Steve Ballmer is leaving, I never really could identify with him. But watch out, if Elop takes over and Microsoft starts losing more than 25% of their stock value in the first year, then he might be a CEO at Google sometime in the future!
For interest sake, here is a link to Nokia's financial's just before Elop took over. You will see that things weren't burning that badly... but then this happened.
I think he will get a platinum blade, or whatever they give to deep-cover business operatives.
The "burning-platform" (backstabbing of existing Nokia assets), which led to the cancellation/sabotaging of ready-to-go projects for smartphones, turned his back on years and millions of R&D in tools and technologies that have been created, and shutting down any projects and innovation related to feature-phones - which has always been crucial to Nokia's bottom lime. These products could have kept Nokia users and investors satisfied until the Windows Mobile phone came out A YEAR later, Lumia 800, almost instantly made old when Microsoft revealed that it won't be able to upgrade to their latest Windows Mobile platform - is that what they call a good launch strategy & "working together"? Then the shutting down some of the most active and productive R&D units, the refusal to listen to the board in the past 9 months in terms of diversifying it's strategy, removing Flash technologies to make place for Silverlight (which then got abandoned by MS this year) etc. Then, finally, in May 2013 the Nokia board was getting ready to "fire" Elop after his "experiment" "failed" - but they obviously didn't know what his plans were, and that it was actually working out perfectly.
So in terms of who is really responsible? It's actually all of us in a way, but in the case of Nokia whomever let Microsoft/Elop in the door in the first place are the real culprits. Elop is just doing what Elop does, ignoring history (even recent corporate history) is the reason we are here today.
I am currently working on a project for Nokia, um, Microsoft, and about the only good thing I can say is that I am happy Steve Ballmer is leaving, I never really could identify with him. But watch out, if Elop takes over and Microsoft starts losing more than 25% of their stock value in the first year, then he might be a CEO at Google sometime in the future!
For interest sake, here is a link to Nokia's financial's just before Elop took over. You will see that things weren't burning that badly... but then this happened.